During Jesus's time, kings employed eunuchs on their grounds to guard the kings' harems. The kings would trust the eunuchs for this job because the eunuchs would have little desire to engage in sexual activity with women.3 Of course, if a eunuch had engaged in any sexual activity with woman in the harem, she could not get pregnant. Some men also were castrated or castrated themselves for religious reasons, such as those who were in a religious cult and their castration was necessary to maintain their cult membership. However, what can we make of Jesus statement that some men are born as eunuchs?

A person may ask himself or herself, "How can someone be born a eunuch?" We know from dictionaries that a eunuch is someone who is castrated, either deliberately or by accident. The ancient Greek word used for eunuchs is εὐνοῦχος or eunouchos, and it means "a castrated person (such being employed in Oriental bed chambers); by extension an impotent or unmarried man; by implication a chamberlain (state officer): - eunuch," according to Strong's Concordance and "a castrated person, eunuch, employed to take charge of the women and act as chamberlain," according to A Greek-English Lexicon.1

4"In a patriarchal culture where honor was tied to male domination, the effeminate, impotent eunuch was viewed with shame and as a threatening social deviant" (Spencer, 2000, p. 434). Summer cites Philodemus, who states, ". . . and they cause confusion especially with a combination of opinions, and the peculiar properties of tympana, rhomboi, cymbals, and rhythms cause frenzied behavior and lead everything to Bacchic revelry, especially through such instruments combined with false notions, which <affect> mostly women and mostly effeminate men . . ." (Summer, 1996, p. 347-348). Return

6"They all sat down to table together, but the (eunuch) priests had eaten only a few mouthfuls of the first course before they jumped up, crowded around their guest's couch, pushed him down on his back, pulled off his clothes, and made such loathsome suggestions that I could stand it no longer. I tried to shout: "Help, help! Rape! Rape! Arrest these he-whores!' But all that came out was 'He-whore', He-whore,' (sic) in fine ringing tones that would have done credit to any ass alive" Apuleius (R. Graves, Trans.), 1951/1979, p. 191. Please note that although The Golden Ass was translated in Latin, it was originally written in ancient Greek, it was a Greek fable, and it may have even had a different name, as explained here and here. Return

7The scholar Nissinen states, "In original Greek, those who are 'in capable of marriage' are called 'eunuchs (eunouchoi). . . . Broadly speaking, "eunuch" can mean anybody who finds marital life impossible. . . . In an expanded sense, the word has been taken as referring to anyone who was physically debilitated, incapable of fathering children, or otherwise unfit and therefore excluded from society" (Nissinen, 1998, p. 120). Return

3"In the Jewish world the eunuch's alien status was compounded by his lack of wholeness (holiness) and inability to perpetuate the covenant line through circumcision and procreation. Biblical law excluded men with damaged genitals from the covenant community (Deut. 23:1) and the holy priesthood (Lev. 21:17-21; cf. Philo Spec. leg. 1.324-25)" (Spencer, 2000, p. 435-435). Return